Little Known Black History Fact: Morehouse College

PLAY AUDIOMorehouse Collegeof Atlanta, Georgia is one of only three all-male liberal arts colleges in the country. The school began as the Augusta Theological Institute in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church. Springfield is the oldest church in the United States, dating back to 1787. By 1913, the operation had moved to the Atlanta West End area and named Morehouse College after Henry L. Morehouse. One of the most notable presidents of Morehouse college was Dr. Benjamin Mays.

Dr. Mays, the college’s sixth president, was a mentor to then student Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who entered the college at age 15 in 1944 and graduated in 1948. Dr. King attended the school as part of his family’s legacy; his grandfather, father, brother and consequently two sons would call Morehouse their alma mater. Dr. Benjamin Mays would also deliver Dr. King’s public eulogy on the campus on April 9, 1968.

Morehouse College is also the home of the Dr. Martin Luther King International Chapel and the multi-million dollar historic collection of Dr. King’s papers and effects from his days as a civil rights leader.

This past January 2013, the college welcomed Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr., class of 1979, as the 11th president of Morehouse College. Among his list of sizable accomplishments in education, Dr. Wilson was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.